Accidents Happen
by emrys-ite
Summary: Edward Elric does not like cats. However, when his brother brings one back again, alchemy is thrown into the mix thus creating a new and slightly ticked off chimera. Inspired by CrowSong's "Cat of the Military". Based of the original anime. T to be safe.


**A/N is at the bottom, please read after the chapter. Thanks!**

Edward Elric did not like cats.

He was sick of them, honestly and truly, although he'd never tell his brother that. Al begged to keep every single stray that the pair encounters, and quite frankly, it was getting on his nerves. Still though, his younger brother persisted, beating him down until he finally had to scream, "NO!"

And this one was no different.

"Al, you know we can't keep it," Ed sighed, taking off his jacket and full-length coat. "There's nowhere we can keep it while we're hopping around." _As if I'd ever ask anyone else to take it either. _A disturbing image of Colonel Mustang cuddling up to a cat and slowly petting it while speaking gibberish entered his mind and he shuddered.

The armored boy sat the kitten down as it meowed softly. "Look, I can keep it inside of me!" He opened up his chest plate, showing the empty and hollow cavity inside.

"And where does it go the bathroom, Al?" Ed said grimly while simultaneously shooting his brother a look.

The younger boy was flustered. "I-I don't know," he admitted. "But I'll find somewhere, promise!"

"The answer's still no," Ed rubbed the patch of skin where his automail connected to his actual body. _Please drop it here, _he thought. _I'm tired and we have to meet with Mustang in the morning._

Suddenly, Al was right next to him, on his knees. "Please, brother?" He pleaded, his tone giving the image of a full on puppy dog face.

"I SAID NO!" Ed yelled, trying to resist the urge to give in to the tone. "Jeez," he muttered, rubbing his neck and undoing his braid.

Silence. Ed sighed. "Look, Al, I'm sorry. I just… well, its just not physically possible. There's no way we could keep it. I'm sorry." He stared blankly up at the ceiling. He wasn't good at apologies by any means.

"Oh, that's quite alright, Brother," Al replied quickly, surprising his older brother. "Since you're being so nice, I'll do something nice for you." There was a scratching sound.

Ed looked down. "Al?"

But the circle was completed, and Ed had nothing to say before he was whisked up into the air on a stone pillar.

"What the heck, Al?" He screamed down to his brother."

Al raised his hand up to his eyes, as if looking up a great distance. "Look, brother, you've really grown!"

"Not funny, Al!" Ed clapped his hands together and slammed them onto the cold stone.

Al let out a bit of a surprised squeak as Ed's pillar sunk into the ground and the stone bars of a cage rose around him in a perfect square. He quickly sketched a transmutation circle with the chalk in his hand, throwing his hands down on it and countering his brother's attack.

The two continued one-upping each other using alchemy. At one point, a large fist rose out of the ground and slammed Ed into a wall. At another, Al became entangled in a net of vines. Neither brother even remotely registered the small mewling of the kitten as it was constantly forced to relocate due to the perpetually morphing room.

It could have been minutes; it could have been hours. Neither boy kept track of time, and eventually the battle became more of a battle of wits than an actual battle. _I can do anything better than you can, _the entire scene portrayed. Attack after attack, circle after circle, and the room eventually became so twisted and distorted that not even the owner would have recognized it, much less the boys since they were concentrating so hard.

So, naturally, neither noticed when the cat scampered into one of Al's transmutation circles at the same time that Ed did.

Al, who had intended to meld his brother's boots into the floor to trap him, threw his hands down onto the etchings without a second thought. Almost immediately after, there was a huge flash of light, a large _MROW!, _and a loud and bloodcurdling scream.

"BROTHER!" Al screamed. He thrust his hand into the light. "What have I done?" He whimpered quietly. "What have I done?"

Slowly, ever so slowly, the light began dying down and Al peered into it, trying to discern what had happened to his brother. A moan came through to him, and he almost looked away, afraid of what might have been created. Hideous images filled his mind: Ed's hands melted into a block of stone, stuck together and immobilized for eternity; A cube of rock covering his brother's face, slowly suffocating him to death; Ed holding a fan to his face scandalously, partially covering his makeup plastered face- Wait, where was that from? Al shook his head, vainly trying to clear his thoughts. But the light was clearing, and he turned his attention back to the spot where he assumed his brother was.

"Al?" Ed moaned from the ground. "What happened?"

Al was speechless, trying to reign in the laughter that was threatening to break out. _He's going to kill me…_

"Al…" Ed growled this time.

"Y-you might want to go look in a mirror, brother…" Al bit back a laugh.

Ed quickly sat up, very nearly scared stiff as to what he might see. Anxiety overpowering him, he lifted up his arms and propelled himself up into the air using only his legs. "What the heck…" he muttered. He decided to disregard the small feat, too anxious to really care about it. He knew that alchemy had been involved, and bad things, truly bad things could happen when you added it into the mix.

As he tried to calmly walk into the bathroom, he noticed that the kitten wasn't in the room anymore. He hadn't seen it crushed in between a wall anywhere, and it didn't look like it was hiding. _Maybe it ran away, _he thought hopefully.

After what seemed like an eternity, he took a deep breath before he turned the knob and faced the mirror.

After a moment, he gritted his teeth heavily. "Alphonse Elric, what did you _do_?"

His face was the same: golden eyes, soft and almost cute features, bangs framing the sides of his face and his cheekbones. His body was still the same as well, with his short stature and automail leg and arm. Nothing was out of place there, nothing was missing. But now, two small, golden cat ears protruded from his head, rotating and responding to every small sound or breath. He felt the sides of his head where his normal ears would be, but instead felt smooth skin. Behind him, a golden tail the same color as his hair and ears twitched and swung from side to side like an angry snake, portraying the boy's current emotion:

Ticked off.

His head slowly ground around in a circle. "Al…" he warned threateningly, his fists clenching and unclenching at his sides.

Not being able to hold it in any longer, the younger boy burst out laughing, propping his head up on his hand, an old pose he used to assume and had gotten into the habit. "B-brother," he stuttered in between bouts of laughter, "I think I turned you into a chimera."

"Gee, you think, Al?" Ed's right ear twitched in annoyance.

Finally, Al managed to reel himself in. "I don't know how it happened, but I can assure you that it wasn't on purpose."

Ed managed to force up a small smile. "It's okay, Al. It's not that bad."

_But it was_, he thought grimly as he sat down on the edge of the bed, his ears slightly deflated. He wasn't even sure how it had happened. Al shouldn't have been nearly that skilled in the field of bio-alchemy to create a perfectly fused chimera, much less out of his own brother. The only experience either of them had with the subject was their stay with Shou Tucker, and neither boy really wanted to revisit that point in their lives. Still, the entire situation just didn't add up.

Ed ran his hands along the length of the tail, feeling the silky velvet of the fur. No, _his_ fur. No matter what way he looked at, no matter from what angle, he was stuck with this whether he liked it or not. Right now, he was pretty sure it was _not_. He couldn't find anything even remotely well bearing about his situation, other than that he might have some new acrobatic skills. He yawned, arching his entire back and arms. He sighed. Even the way he yawned had changed.

"Al, we'll deal with this in the morning." Ed said as he slipped off his boots. Their spat had worn him out.

"Okay, brother." Al replied, the last tinges of laughter barely echoing in his metallic voice.

The both of them climbed into their respective beds. The glow faded out of Al's eyes as he rolled over onto his side. Ed ran a hand through his hair and over his ears, feeling the soft and tiny hairs covering the thin membrane. Even with the traits he had already exhibited, he was surprised he wasn't hissing at anyone yet. Well, there was always tomorrow.

He supposed that, contrary to his earlier belief, that is wasn't all that bad. He wasn't in any pain, considering the transmutation his body had just undergone. He wasn't dead. He didn't want to die. He didn't see death in his near future- well, maybe death by embarrassment, but still. He'd just keep it quiet; hide his tail under his cloak and his ears under his hood, keeping any other cat traits that popped up under wraps himself. It'd be a new look with the hood, and it was guaranteed that people would notice, but better that than cat ears. Still though, there was one person he wouldn't be able to hide it from, no matter how hard he tried.

How the _hell _was he going to tell the Colonel?

**A/N: Firstly, I'd like to thank CrowSong for inspiring this fic. Her story, Cat of the Military, is amazing! I got the cat chimera idea from her, to that credit is hers. This was really fun to write (but I swear, it wrote itself), and I plan on continuing with it. **

**Oh, and I know that Ed and Al may seem a little OOC in this chapter (at least, they did to me) because I think Ed would've freaked out a little more and Al wouldn't have laughed so much. But alas, I'm too lazy to go back and change it. (I know, I know, gomen.) Also, I know that it may not be very realistic (canon wise) but creative license, right?**

**Okay, I won't waste any more of your time. I'd love any critiques, suggestions, or anything else that you want to leave in a review. I love anything that can help me make my writing better :3 Thanks for reading, I hope that you enjoyed it!**

**R&R?**


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